Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Richardson, from Matrix Serious Organised Crime, said: "Cannabis is not a harmless drug and its production is large in scale and large in profit here in Merseyside as well as elsewhere in the country.

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"The quantities that are being grown in here means it is rarely people doing it to feed their own casual habit.

"It is organised criminal gangs who are setting them up and controlling them. This is bringing associated problems such as violent crime and gun crime to the streets of our communities as these criminals seek to steal each other's crops and money.”

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